According to the National Financial Educators Council, over 51% of 15 to 18 year olds failed a national financial literacy test in 2023. Many schools across the US do not have a formal financial curriculum, therefore leaving children to rely on the knowledge of their parents. Money Mindfulness Expert & Author David Delisle joins Wealth! to give insight into financial education for families.

Delisle explains that vacations may be a good place to educate kids about financial literacy: "If we're trying to teach them lifelong goals or budgeting or doing without, it's hard with the time frames, but with vacations, we can simply give them the money we plan to spend on them anyway for, you know, treats and souvenirs or toys or ride ticket, and let them start making those decisions. The stakes are low. If they end up spending all of their money, that's fine. If they buy something they didn't like, that's fine. It's a great opportunity for them to start having a little bit more autonomy, understand the value of money, and making those decisions themselves."

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth!

Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

BRAD SMITH: Well, over 51% of 15- to 18-year-olds failed a National Financial Literacy Test in 2023. This is according to the National Financial Educators Council. And without a formalized personal finance curriculum, kids can really only rely and pick up on that education at home.

So for how to transform the way that you and your family think about money, we've got David Delisle, who's the money mindfulness expert and author, here with us. Great to see you, David. What is the first way that, perhaps, people can come together, families come together around the kitchen table, and just set up the first steps towards financial literacy within the household.

DAVID DELISLE: I love that you mentioned around the table, because that's the thing. It's usually we make this something that's much bigger than it needs to be. It's just having conversations about money. We don't tend to do that. We don't do that within families. We don't do that with friends. We don't do that outside.

And the more we start talking about money and just having these conversations, the more we start to understand these basic concepts.

BRAD SMITH: And sometimes it starts with collectively goal setting as a family too. You have something that you call the vacation tactic. Walk us into that.

DAVID DELISLE: Vacations are such a great opportunity. We just came out of spring break for many of us. And it's such a good opportunity to teach some of these things to our kids. Because if we're trying to teach them these things like, lifelong goals, or budgeting, or doing without, it's hard with the time frames.

But with vacations, we can simply give them the money we plan to spend on them anyway for treats and souvenirs, or toys, or ride tickets. And let them start making those decisions.

And the stakes are low. If they end up spending all their money, that's fine. If they buy stuff they didn't like, that's fine. It's a great opportunity for them to start having a little bit more autonomy, understanding the value of money, and making some of those decisions themselves.

BRAD SMITH: This is a mindfulness-- this is a mindset change that families, individuals can implement. How do they ensure that they can sustain that over time?

DAVID DELISLE: So something I love to do is really instead of focusing on the money aspect and how to have more, is focusing on like, the why, what really brings you joy? What I call the awesome stuff, especially, for kids.

I've got two young boys. So they love that idea, and that concept of the awesome stuff. So understanding what really is your awesome stuff, and then that mindfulness piece, like, you mentioned, shifting that so it becomes a question. Is this my awesome stuff? And that becomes the deciding factor whether or not you want to have something.

And usually, that awesome stuff is that feeling, like, how does something make you feel? Adults can definitely learn a benefit from this as well.

BRAD SMITH: There's one other concept that you talk about a lot, which is loud budgeting for families. Beyond me, just yelling how much I spent when I left or once I come back in the house, what does loud budgeting look like in practice?

DAVID DELISLE: So this is back to that idea of having these conversations. And we're not having them. So something like-- this is as adults. So if your friends are asking you to go out, and you just don't really want to go out, because it's too expensive. But we're so ashamed about money. We might just say, we can't go out or we're not feeling up for it.

Instead, letting people know what your financial goals are, telling them, hey, I'd love to see you. I'd love to go out. But I'm trying to save money. I'm trying to pay off this debt. Or this Is what my priorities are. This is what I'm saving up for.

And focusing on telling people like that loud, isn't about yelling or screaming yet. It's about bringing your actual financial goals and achievements out into the open and having those conversations, instead of hiding them.

BRAD SMITH: Look, I'll give a freebie out to our viewers. I usually just tell people, it's a financial stabilization weekend for me. Sorry. Can't do it.

All right. David, we got to leave things there. David Delisle, who is the money mindfulness expert and author. Thanks so much.

DAVID DELISLE: Thanks so much. It's great being on here.